A Curious Statistical Anomaly

First off, I found this Breast Cancer Awareness PSA hilarious.  But it’s raising eyebrows everywhere and there are many who feel it is too sexy to be on TV and sends the wrong message.  I want you to watch it and see for yourself:

It’s about time the giggle factor be used to heighten awareness. Let’s face it breasts are used to sell everything from cars to computers to guns to sailboats–if it’s for sale they drape a scantily clad women over it. Sex sells as the saying goes and sex is personified in boobs. I’ve never been able to understand how we manage to get so caught up in two lumps of fatty tissue that also contain milk ducts–but it’s that societal emphasis on the breasts that keep many people from touching their own breast to learn how they feel so they can recognize changes in the tissue. It’s fear of losing a breast that cause some women to ignore lumps and pretend everything is fine when they know deep down it is not fine.

I’m a breast cancer survivor.  My mother had breast cancer and so did my uncle.  My mother is also a survivor, but my uncle died of complications of the treatment for his breast cancer. It’s not just women who get breast cancer but it’s women that the awareness ads and Breasat Cancer Awareness Month focuses on.

Each year 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer.  Each year 20,000 women die of breast cancer.  The key is to recognize the symptoms and get treatment early.  For women that means breast self-exams and regular mammograms or MRIs.

Breast cancer in men is something most men don’t want to talk about but you can learn about symptoms, causes, and risks. While breast cancer is rare in men, it does happen so if you’re male and have a lump in your breast area, get it checked out. The survival rates for men are similar to the survival rates in women with breast cancer in the same stage. The problem is that since breast cancer is so rare in men, when it is found it’s usually fairly advanced — when in doubt check it out.

I don’t want anyone to die of breast cancer. It’s treatable when found early and the survival rates are rising each year. Educate yourself about your family history of breast cancer. Be aware of your own body and the changes that occur as you age — what’s natural and what doesn’t seem right. If you have doubts ask your doctor if this is a normal change in tissue or should it be checked out.

Meanwhile, I still find this PSA hilariously funny. I hope it does make young people aware of the danger their boobs could be in if they don’t do self-exams, see their doctor regularly, and have mammograms at the proscribed intervals.

Do you think this type of public service announcement is helpful or harmful? Would you remember it?

I’ve noticed that music can lighten my mood if I’m unhappy. Depress me if I’m sad. Give me that extra energy to go just a bit more on some task or other when I’m tired. Music, even when it’s the music of wind in the leaves and birds at the feeder, makes life just more “there”.

For many years, I’ve noticed that when the music fits a movie it adds to the viewing and the story. When the sounds are right and the music is right you don’t even notice it it just stays in the background — but it can make you cry more at the sad parts, shudder at the scary parts, and thrill to the adventure — it adds to the story but in a way you don’t even notice.

Today, this article in ScienceDaily caught my eye, or rather the title did, “Scary Music Is Scarier With Your Eyes Shut“. Prof. Talma Hendler and Dr. Yulia Lerner at Tel Aviv Universities Functional Brain Center studied people listening to scary music with their eyes open and closed and found some interesting results:

15 healthy volunteers listen to spooky Hitchcock-style music, and then neutral sounds with no musical melody. They listened to these twice, once with their eyes open and a second time with their eyes shut, as she monitored their brain activity with an fMRI. While volunteers were listening to the scary music, Dr. Lerner found that brain activity peaked when the subjects’ eyes were closed. This medical finding corresponded to volunteer feedback that the subjects felt more emotionally charged by the scary music.

The amygdala, the region of the brain in which emotions are located, was significantly more active when the subjects’ eyes were closed. “It’s possible that closing one’s eyes during an emotional stimulation, like in our research, may help people through a variety of mental states. It synchs connectivity in the brain,” Dr. Hendler says.

They’re hoping that this research can be used to design future studies that could help people with dementia and systemic brain disorders.

Music brings balance to the brain and more readily integrates the affective and cognitive centers of our mind. Music may help us think better and even improve our learning abilities.

I don’t know about people with actual physical neurological problems but for many years Hollywood has been experimenting on hundreds of thousands of people by using music to play with their emotions. Just as many students use music to help them concentrate on their studies. Workers the world over use music to mask annoying background chatter so that they can work effectively. Many people have used music to regulate their movements so that everyone is in sync when group efforts are required (rowing, lifting heavy objects, etc.). Guess now science has caught up.

Remember people telling you to just get over it when you got picked last for games, when you never got invited to the cool parties, when you were a wall-flower at dances, or when your best-friend canceled because he/she found something better to do at the last minute. Well, those rejections hurt. The problem though was that everyone said it was in your head that it didn’t really hurt — you were just pretending.

Well, according to this article in Telegraph.co.uk, that pain was real.

Psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles say the human body has a gene which connects physical pain sensitivity with social pain sensitivity…

Their study indicates that a variation in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1), often associated with physical pain, is related to how much social pain a person feels in response to social rejection.

I’ve often wondered why people think that psychological pain is somehow less painful than physical pain when the pain receptors are basically the same. Pain is pain no matter where it comes from — whether you fall down a flight of stairs or have your significant other walk out on you because s/he need to find him/herself (as if they got lost and can’t get dressed until they find their body — where ever it went off to) is painful. Some people react to social rejection as if it was physical.

I’d hope that this finding will get educators and other to be a bit more proactive in stopping bullies and intimidation in the schools. But, since not even having children go postal or committing suicide because of the painful torment they suffer every day seems to be helpful, I doubt that research that shows these children and adults (faced with the same bullying and intimidation) do suffer pain will cause anyone to actually change their behavior.

Those who have suffered the pain for social rejection however, should feel a bit of vindication to know that the pain they felt or feel was not imaginary, it was real. And while from social rather than physical stimulus it still takes a toll on a person’s immune system and stamina.

Now if only someone could come up with a cure for a broken heart. Any ideas? Personally, I like to spend time with Ben & Jerry when I’m feeling the pain of social rejection.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a crew member exposed to lethal radiation in science fiction stories and the doc just loads up the anti-radiation serum and gives them a shot and everything is looking good. In movies and TV, I’m sure you’ve seen it. Just the other night we were watching a Battlestar Galactica DVD and the planet had high radiation levels and Starbuck, Helo, and Boomer just dosed themselves with the anti-radiation serum at regular intervals.

Now it looks like science has caught up with fiction. Ynet News has a story on Cure for radiation sickness found? by Ronen Bergman. The medication developed by Professor Andrei Gudkov – Chief Scientific Officer at Cleveland BioLabs has immediate real life implications for people who have or need to be exposed to high levels of radiation. From the article:

Gudkov’s discovery may also have immense implications for cancer patients by enabling doctors to better protect patients against radiation. Should the new medication enable cancer patients to be treated with more powerful radiation, our ability to fight the disease could greatly improve.

How the discovery came about is one of those lucky ideas that sometimes happen when the right conditions come together.

The process that led up to the medical innovation dates back to 2003, when Professor Gudkov came up with the idea of using protein produced in bacteria found in the intestine to protect cells from radiation.

Tests so far on mice and monkeys look like this is the “real deal”. If approved after being moved to the fast track, this would be a preventative medication not a cure but it would be safe and easily injected. The possible uses could be a miracle for cancer patients, workers in the nuclear industry, astronauts and space workers, and many others such as governments who wish to stockpile medications — just in case the worst case scenario of MAD comes knocking.

In fact, if this drug manages to hold up to its promise, it could mean that space flight and/or long-term habitation of space stations and on ships heading to Mars (for example) would have less of a problem with radiation that would other wise limit our chances of success. It opens up a lot of possibilities that were previously unavailable to us because of the radiation exposure the crews would face.

What are your thoughts? And please read the original article before commenting?

I woke up with a headache this morning. I tried ignoring it until around 6 but it didn’t work, it just kept getting worse and worse. Finally, I took Advil — no joy. Then IMITREX, still getting worse.

Checked the barometer and it’s fine. Then the light dawns. The temperature sky-rocketed today. Probably in celebration of the anniversary of Apollo 11. As was recently reported, temperature effects migraines — so now I know why. I just wish I could get it under control. I’ll take more Advil when I finish this, hoping if I take the edge off I can get to sleep and sleep it off. I’m great with optimism.

Didn’t post yesterday because I was just too stressed. I got a call in the early afternoon from my aunt that my mother had just been taken to the hospital. Evidently, she’d passed out. Neighbors realized they hadn’t seen her all day or the day before and went to check on her and found her. Thanks heavens she has neighbors who watch out for each other.

So, I ended up calling the hospital to speak with the ER doctor, no broken bones from her fall, not a stroke or a heart attack. Not all the blood work was back but she did have pneumonia. How you manage to get pneumonia in summer (even in Maine) is a mystery to me. But the upshot is she’ll be in the hospital a few days.

While it is such a relief to know she’ll be okay, it brings up again the problem of living so far away from elderly parents. When I was growing up, my grandparents lived down stairs from us. Most of the family lived in town or the next town over (in walking distance mostly). Now my mother lives in the house I grew up in. I live in Maryland. Most of my cousins still live in Maine but scattered throughout the state. Families don’t necessarily live within driving distance.

I was chastised for not driving up to Maine to visit at least every three months. Driving up takes about 16 hours. Flying up is shorter but then you need to rent a car for the 3 hour plus drive from the airport. We only have one car so either my husband has to come with me (taking vacation time) or we have to rent a second car for me to go alone.

That sounds a bit like justification but it’s just facts. This is a problem that many people my age are now facing as their parents or surviving parent has health problems and you don’t live geographically close enough to check in and help out. Many friends have had to deal with this already and it is never easy. Parent doesn’t want to move from what family is there in the familiar place. Adult child has home/work/friends/attachments to the area in which they live — and work in this economic climate is the clincher. There really aren’t any easy answers to what to do. We’re talking over several options and will talk to my mother about them.

Meanwhile, I worry and I know that the worry is just adding more power to this hideous migraine. Time for the next batch of Advil and another try for sleep.

Every now and then you come across an article that just, while it seems so short, answers a lot of questions. For example this one, Sperm Travels Faster Toward Attractive Females in Discover Channel article by Jennifer Veigas. Of course the research was done on red junglefowl, a sort of chicken.

While women may be picky when choosing a mate, it seem that the male is most likely to produce more sperm with a great desire to make it to the egg if the male finds the female attractive and the more attractive the faster the sperm swim to their destination.

While this is interesting research especially for those who are trying to learn more about fertility, it does seem to be making a lot of assumptions when the chickens can’t exactly tell you that that chicken on over by the watering can is the most beautiful he’s ever seen. The researcher said:

“Female attractiveness is determined by the expression of a sexual ornament — the comb — which is phenotypically and genetically correlated to the number and mass of eggs females lay,” according to study co-authors Charlie Cornwallis of the University of Oxford and the Royal Veterinary College’s Emily O’Connor.

I don’t think that this research can really be expected to map on human behavior because I don’t think it actually maps on chicken behavior — flushed comb or not — some hens are better layers than others no matter what the rooster thinks of them. Ask any farmer? So, while interesting, I think the assumptions are flawed but then again the original papers are not available and the reported methodology just doesn’t make me think they got anything going with this line of research — but it does make you wonder….

Okay, I admit it. I’m overweight. I’m working on adding a lot more exercise into my daily life, well as much as I can with chronic pain and fibromyalgia. I do between 15-45 minutes on the Wii Fit each day. Lately, I’ve been also walking down to the mailbox (1/4 miles from the house) and a few times a week, depending on the temperature, Hyperion and I have been taking about a 1.5 to 2 mile walk in the early evening. So, I’m not a slouch with the exercise and I eat healthy and lite — mostly.

But I’m fairly comfortable with myself though if I lose some weight my knees would probably throw a big party with carrots and celery. But then I get the confusing messages from the “world”. Airlines want to charge extra for heavy people to fly because it bothers people to sit next to a fat person. You know what bothers me — people who douse themselves with perfume and fly, people who put their seats all the way back without even thinking about the person behind them who just lost 1/3 of their space and most likely can’t read unless they rest the book on the reclining person’s head, people who feel they must tell you their life story even when you get your book our and open it. Heck, I’ve sat next to skinny people who spread themselves all out over half my seat and their own and half the one next to them as they take off their shoes and pull their legs up into their seat with their knees on my seat arm and in my lap. No, I don’t think overweight people are the problem — I think seats designed for a 1920’s butt that hasn’t been updated since is the problem, but then there would be fewer seats per plane, flying would be more relaxing, and flight attendants would have an easier time dealing with passengers — hmmm….

But mostly, people in the news and in advertising seem to think heavy people are lazy and don’t do anything. Most of the people I know are overweight. Of course they also work 12-14 hours per day and are on call the rest of the day doing IT work of one sort or another. Add the long days to long commutes and there’s not a lot of time to eat responsibly — you grab meals when you can and take what you can get. Most run on caffeine and sugar — that’s the problem for most Americans. We work long hours with long commutes and very little free time. Of course, I work at home but I still work long hours and have health issues so ….

But, I found this gem of an article in the New York Times, Excess Pounds, but Not Too Many, May Lead to Longer Life.  Evidently, skinny people and very heavy people may have health problems from weight issues but moderately heavy and normal (whatever that means) people live longer. There was a similar article about the study, Can A Little Extra Weight Protect People From Early Death? Underweight, Extremely Obese Die Earlier Than People Of Normal Weight in Science Daily. Yeah, for this new study.

I’ve known some skinny people with really bad health problems and some normal people and some heavy people. I may agree that carrying added weight can put some strain on the organs, but then so can a lot of other factors. You just can’t generalize about people on simply one factor and expect it to be taken seriously. I doubt if there is a single factor you could use that starts with “All whatever people are ____” and have it be true for every case. It isn’t true when you use race as that whatever and it certainly isn’t true when you use eye color, hair color, weight, or religion. People are too diverse and unique to use sweeping statements like that.

But I like this study because it found evidence that goes totally against what people have been saying for ages and seems to have some numbers to back it up. We need more studies to see just what being overweight does effect and these studies will hopefully be devoid of blame and accusations.

Today when I opened my online news source, I was greeted with an article about the FDA wanting to pull many of the prescribed painkillers containing acetaminophen off the market. Philly.com has this article Painkillers at a crossroads as FDA decision looms. The Globe and Mail had this article, U.S. FDA recommends pulling some painkillers off the market. There was an article with an opposing view that was rather mild in my opinion.

In the Globe and Mail article, it said:

Despite years of educational campaigns and other federal actions, acetaminophen remains the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S., according to the FDA.

Panelists cited FDA data indicating 60 per cent of acetaminophen-related deaths are related to prescription products. Acetaminophen is also found in popular over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Excedrin.

Those of you who read my blog know that I suffer from chronic pain. I found this bit about “years of educational campaigns and other federal actions” to be laughable. At one point, before my arthritis was diagnosed, the family practice doc I was seeing didn’t want to do anything about it because I was simply fat and needed to lose weight. The pain had gotten so bad that I was scaring myself with the number of Tylenol that I was taking just to manage to walk with a cane. I made an appointment and told her how much Tylenol I was taking and that I was concerned with liver damage. She laughed told me I could double or triple the dose and to just lose weight.

At the time, I was well below liver damage’s (LD 50) but that level has been lowered twice since and now I’d be just a bit below. I was so angry. I left the doctor’s office and went to see my chiropractor without an appointment. They took a look at my swollen knee and referred me to a specialist (at the time I couldn’t see another doctor without a referral). After seeing the specialist, I was diagnosed as having arthritis in both knees and later the added bonus of it was aggravating my fibromyalgia — a double whammy.

The point is that I knew more about the drugs I was taking than the malpractice-suit-waiting-to-happen doctor that I’d been seeing. Needless to say, I also changed doctors that day.

The second point is that most doctors, though they write the scripts, are not experts in drugs, drug interactions, and doses — most of the time they rely on the pharmacist to flag if something they prescribe is going to conflict with something you already have, or needs special information or training for the patient. Remember, there is a reason that so many pharmacies ask that you keep ALL you Rxs with them. It’s also the same reason they staple those informational notes to the Rx’s bag and ask if you have any questions.

If you take prescriptions be sure you understand how to take them and how often and whether you need to keep taking them if you feel better or should quit. Always ask questions if you don’t understand or feel confused. It’s your body and your life — you are the best person to take responsibility for keeping yourself healthy and safe.

Doctors have years of schooling, internship, and practice under their belts but, at heart, they are people. They know more about their fields that we ever will, but when you have a chronic condition, it’s worth your while to learn about it and ask questions, because no doctor can be an expert in every condition and disease that will walk through their office door. Mistakes and accidents happen.

My story about the doctor that suggested I take a near lethal dose of a Tylenol is a case in point. If I hadn’t read about the dangers of Tylenol/acetaminophen and liver damage, I just might have followed her suggestions. Luckily, I didn’t.

Do I think these painkillers with acetaminophen should be pulled from the market? NO. A resounding NO! Here in America many people live with pain — chronic, near crippling pain. Most people who deal with pain are under medicated and ignored. They need help. If these drugs are pulled, there are other that can be used, but we don’t have access to them in the US. Unless the FDA is going to allow alternatives they should consider leaving these on the market with strongly worded cautions and plainly worded Dosage Limits.

Even more important — the FDA should make sure that pharmacists, doctors, and the public have access to this education and training that they THINK they have done over the years. I’ve heard more stories similar to my “ignorant” doctor (used with the meaning that it can be cured) than I have of the other kind. I think information on drugs should be easier to find online, with easy to understand material explaining doses, uses, and contra-indications. Most dosage info online is convoluted or needs a chemical degree to figure out what’s too much and what’s safe — we need better resources for patients and doctors.

Mostly, we need better pain management. I have my good days and my bad.  And I do it mostly without painkillers.  But today, I slipped and fell, landing full force on my knee — it sure would be nice to take something, but I can’t, because I might need it more later on and I can’t waste the few painkillers I have. (I’m not the only chronic pain sufferer who has to balance need this way, and the sad part is none of us should have to.)